THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2753, 24 April 1916, Page 6

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

SOHOOLS AND NATIONAL . DEFENCE. The President then delivered his address. He spoke first of the war and of the changes it had mado in national life, changes which were not so marked here as in places nearer to the seat of war. The' lesson of the war was that if a need wero urgent, enough, and if the nation were made to realise tins, then the. nation would! find ways and means of meeting it. The war would tend to increase national efficiency. He believed that the foundation of tional efficiency must be laid in the schools; in other words, that the schools were the first line of national defence. (Applause.) If tins were realised by our i public men and our .politicians the prospect ahead of education would be much hotter than it was now. (Applause.) The cry would not be so often, "Wo can't afford it," when reforms were proposed, and we should have done with our laissez faire policy, or lack of policy. He considered that we ought to do much more in the way of medical and dental inspection of' children. Something was being done now, but it must lie admitted that thjs great question had yet to be faced. There must bo provision not only for inspection, but for remedial treatment, and for investigation of the causes of prevalent physical ills or defocts. Nor did he agree lint'the New Zealand Government was doing all that it should do in the provision of suitable school buildings, suitable furniture, and sufficient areas for play, and the lack of those neenssaries was a danger to the health of the children. Ho thought, also; that.the. system of physical. instruction should be developed and-extended, and he explained in sonic detail what shape ho thought this development should take. He hoped that after tho war there would lie a return to some simple, unpretentious system of junior cadets in schools. On tho subjcct of tho cditcn-' generally, ho deplored our present conservatism, and. emphasised tho need for a modification of our post primiwy'vlueatjnn, with the. ulijoct of 'laadins our obildren mora easily into

branches of work likely to aid them iu earning their livelihood as citizens. Votes of thanks were accorded to the Minister, tho president, and tho other speakers.

FIRST BUSINESS

THE CONSTITUTION,

The conference discussed in committee proposed important alterations to the constitution. The change proposed is partly consequent upon the reduction in number und increase in sizo of the education districts. The 'suggestion is that not only shall there be ono institute branch only in every education district,, but that a measure of independence should be given to sub-bran-ches of the institute in more important centres in education districts. It is not contemplated that very many more branches will be formed, but merely that the more important subbranches will be able to apply to be constituted .independent branches, responsible only to the Centr&l Executive, 'i'hey will be permitted to approach boards on matters of lessor importance, but on general questions they will bo directed not to make representations to boards without the approval of the Central Executive. It is also proposed that wider powers shall be given to the executive, in order that it may deal with remits of minor importance as they are received; this to clear the order-paper for the annual meeting of a great deal of matter which does not require the attention of the annual meeting. It is regarded as probable that these reforms will be carried. CRADINC EXPLAINED. OLD CLASSIFICATION EFFETE. In the evening the meeting was addressed Dy the Director of Education (Dr. Anderson; and tho Assistant- Director (Mr. John Caugliley) on the proposed Dominion grading scheme. Dr. Anderson said that for a lone time past the teachers of the country had been dissatisfied, and in some cases rightly dissatisfied with the manner in which appointments ,of teachers had been made in the past. -Through the influence of the teachers improvements had been made in the legislation by Parliament, but much more remained to be done. School commfttees could riot possibly know enoufch of the qualifications ot teachers to appoint, them intelligent' jjj and their powers had accordingly been curtailed. §omo of the Education Hoards hao voluntarily curtailed! their own powers of appointment, and grading schemes had been adopted by the Auckland, Wanganui, Taranaki, and iiaw ke s Bay Boards. It might bo asked why, when a classification, scheme already existed, was there need for a grading scheme? In the first placo, the classification scheme was defective because it gave too much prominence to literary attainments as compared with thd other qualifications necessary for. a teacher. But the chief objection to the classification was that it had been worked out by the inspectors of the thirteen education districts-without any common control, with the -result that the same classification was given to teachers in different districts who were bv no means equal in teaching efficiency. Many men were under the existing scheme graded too high. Perhaps years ago they deserved their class, but the classification was never raised, as the men lost in efficiency, which most of them did. He did. not suggest that thore should be a revision which would bd invidious, and now what was proposed was that they should start afresh by the grading scheme. Tho scheme Vn»s not easy, but it was possible, and it was desirable. He assured the teachers that great pains had been taken to make the grading scheme a good one, and lie believod Mr. Caugliley was the best man.to institute the scheme.

Mr. Caughley said that in preparing the scheme he had studied other schemes in'other.countries, and also the schemes of grading adopted by inspectors in different districts of Now Zealand. He went on'to explain the scheme with,extreme care and thoroughness, demon-, stratiug by the use of graphs how it would work as to averages. His endeavour was to show that the schemo waß the fairest that could be devised, and that it would work equitably. He announced that a report'on the scheme would be issued by the Department before grading would be. put into effect. * Votes of thanks were accorded to Dr. Anderson and Mr. Caughley for their informative' talks off tho grading

scheme.